Several sections of Soshanguve were without power on Wednesday morning due to reported incidents of cable theft.
The Tshwane metro said technicians were investigating the three incidents with a view to replacing the stolen cables.
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The metro said damage was caused to some of the electricity components between Rietgat and Soshanguve substations during acts of theft and vandalism on Monday 19 March 2019.
Residents of blocks R, S, W, P, KK, Y and TT in Soshanguve were left without power after four cables were stolen.
On Wednesday, 20 March, Block CC substation in Soshanguve also suffered a blackout when cables were stolen in the early hours of the morning.
The metro said it was anticipated that power supply would have been restored by midnight on March 20. Technicians were working on replacing the stolen cables, the metro said.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and wish to plead with the affected residents to allow the city’s technical team to conduct their work unhindered.
“The unstable power supply is a serious concern and we are not taking it lightly,” the metro said.
The power outages were due to a number of factors, it said.
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The main culprit was cable theft, which affected mini substations, cabling and transformers, among others.
“We wish to reiterate our plea to our communities to report suspicious activities in their neighbourhoods to the Tshwane metro police at 012-358-7095/6.”
The metro said technicians had tried to temporarily restore power supply to the affected areas but the load was too much for the network to handle.
“In order to ensure provision of electricity supply, the City will rotationally share the load between the affected areas until repairs are concluded. Residents are urged to minimise electricity consumption in order to assist with the load on the network.”
Affected customers are urged to report power failures by sending an SMS with the word power followed by their account number to 44676.
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